Don't know about all the suspension technicalities, all I can say is that the 1.5 is brilliant.

I drove the 1.5 Sport Nav on Saturday and followed Larry in the 2.0 all I'll say is that we weren't hanging around on the test drive. The 2 litre did appear to have more torque and could pull away from mine but on the real world roads the little 1.5 always pulled this back and was on his tail most of the time.

I did think that the confidence inspiring handling of the 1.5 was brilliant. It was just so easy and fun to flick it through the slick gearbox and throw it into corners and being fired out the other end with a huge grin on my face. I do think it handles better than my 2 litre Sport Tech.

The cabin has also been vastly improved, much less plastic in the dash area.

I love my current car so hoped the new one wouldn't be any real improvement, unfortunately it's lots better. If I was lucky enough to have one it would definitely be the 1.5 as its so much fun and easier to live with.

Becoming an MX-5 trademark, seen some nice angular stubby ones on Miata.net that suit the styling of the car.

The Mazda folks hinted that this would probably be changing for UK spec in a little bit.Wonder if the Honda S2000 one will fit? Looks to be the same screw in fitting which would give you a decent looking stubby, but not too short, with very good reception for about £15.

I did the whole loop in a 2.0 Sport, Red with sand leather. TBH I can't comment on seats, space, gadgets as I switched off or ignored etc. I just blatted it, faster than my NC1 as lighter and revier, slightly crashy but I can live with it having had live axle kit cars etc. First few miles I didn't see the differences with NC (same same but different ) until I got a bit hooligan. Yes its jittery suspension but holds the line and doesn't bottom out on yumps as mine does with Eibachs on Billies.

Afterwards when one of the senior Mazda guys heard I was a biker insisted I thrash a 1.5 which I did. Well its a bit gutless low down, no torque, needs revved, which I did. Must have done 20 miles B road mainly in 4th gear keeping revs 5000-7500, a lot of fun, but tiring and computer reading 12 mpg, which I couldn't live with.

In an ideal world a 1.5 for thrashing on a Sunday and a 2.0 for Mon-Sat.

To summarise I would like a 2.0 with LSD, Billies etc, but not interested in lane departure crap, auto windscreen wiper crap, bluetooth crap, which all comes as standard with Sport spec. SE does without but has cloth seats and I always have leather seats in open car, full stop, a red line issue for me. Its a sports car, take the gizmo mince out and save another 5 kgs.

ps; Most of the colours are as dull as ditch water catering for the 95% population that buy silver-blue-grey-dull diesel krautwagons. The £600 option red is the only colour I like,pps; and the aerial is a disaster, needs a MX5 parts stubby imho.

Scott_J wrote:Afterwards when one of the senior Mazda guys heard I was a biker insisted I thrash a 1.5 which I did. Well its a bit gutless low down, no torque, needs revved, which I did. Must have done 20 miles B road mainly in 4th gear keeping revs 5000-7500, a lot of fun, but tiring and computer reading 12 mpg, which I couldn't live with.

In an ideal world a 1.5 for thrashing on a Sunday and a 2.0 for Mon-Sat.

Interesting, I couldn't live with that either, we didn't hang about in the 1.5 by any means and the computer was reading around 35 mpg, may have been a fault or bad reset on the one you had.